author
Bernard Moses
1846–1930
A pioneering scholar of Latin America, he helped bring the history of Spanish America into U.S. university study at a time when the field was still taking shape. He spent much of his career at the University of California, Berkeley, combining history, politics, and public service.
1 Audiobook
Spanish colonial literature in South America
by Bernard Moses
About the author
Born in 1846, Bernard Norton Moses became a longtime professor of history and political science at the University of California, Berkeley. He studied at the University of Michigan and later earned a doctorate at Heidelberg before joining Berkeley's faculty in 1876.
He is best remembered for his work on Latin America and the Spanish colonization of the Americas. His teaching and writing helped establish Hispanic American history as a serious field of study in the United States, and his books explored empire, government, and colonial institutions with a broad comparative view.
Moses also took part in public life beyond the classroom. In the early 1900s, he served in the Philippines under U.S. administration, an experience that reflected his wider interest in governance and imperial policy. He died in 1930, leaving behind a reputation as an influential early historian of Latin America.